Jazz Composition Festival: Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra with Sean Jones

Join us as the Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra takes the stage with renowned trumpeter Sean Jones for the US premiere of Inserto's "Suite for Sean Jones." Commissioned and premiered by the WDR Big Band, this dynamic new work showcases Inserto’s signature blend of intricate harmonies and bold, expressive storytelling, brought to life by Jones's virtuosic playing. Don't miss this unforgettable collaboration between a visionary composer and a modern jazz master.

 

Music and spirituality have always been intertwined in the artistic vision of Jones, a trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator, and activist. Jones sang and performed as a child with the church choir in his hometown of Warren, Ohio, and switched from playing the drums to the trumpet at the age of 10.

 

Jones is a musical chameleon, comfortable in any musical setting no matter the role or genre. After a six-month stint with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis offered him a permanent position as lead trumpeter of the ensemble, a post he held from 2004 until 2010. In 2015, Jones was tapped to become a member of the SFJAZZ Collective. During this time, he has managed to keep a core group of talented musicians together under his leadership, forming the foundation for groups that have produced and released eight recordings on Mack Avenue Records. His most recent recording is Sean Jones: Live from Jazz at the Bistro.

 

Jones has been prominently featured in recordings and performances with many major figures in jazz, including Illinois Jacquet, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Wilson, and Marcus Miller. He was selected by Miller, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter for their A Tribute to Miles tour in 2011. He has also performed with the Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Youngstown symphony orchestras, as well as Soulful Symphony in Baltimore and a chamber group at the Salt Bay Chamberfest.

 

Jones is an internationally-recognized educator. He is president of the Jazz Education Network and holds the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies at John Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute in Baltimore. He also serves as artistic director for the NYO JAZZ program of Carnegie Hall. Previously, he served as chair of the Brass Department at Berklee College of Music.

 

Ayn Inserto is a visionary jazz composer and bandleader known for her dynamic and intricate big band writing. A protégé of Bob Brookmeyer, she leads the Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra, featuring guests like Sean Jones, George Garzone, and John Fedchock. In 2022, she was the musical director of the Frankfurt Radio Big Band (HR Big Band) for performances featuring Linda May Han Oh. Along with Jim McNeely, she orchestrated and arranged the concert featuring Oh's music. Most recently, Inserto composed "Suite for Sean Jones" for the WDR Big Band. Her music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and major jazz festivals worldwide. Inserto is assistant chair of Harmony and Jazz Composition at Berklee College of Music.

 

"The bandleader conducts an agile, 17-piece ensemble made up of peers, friends, longtime collaborators and even family... Inserto has crafted a program that feels completely natural as big band music and includes five of her compositions. Some lesser orchestrators nowadays falter when they seize music originally penned for a combo and clumsily rework it with an arrangement that's actually ill-suited for a large ensemble. But Inserto—who studied with Bob Brookmeyer (1929-2011)—delivers a program that gracefully exploits the strengths of big band instrumentation, as evidenced by her two-part suite titled "Part I: Ze Teach" and "Part II: And Me." Elsewhere, Inserto offers a superb arrangement of Jones' "BJ's Tune," providing a showcase for the trumpeter's sumptuous tone. This album strikes the perfect balance between entertaining artistry and finely crafted arrangements that could be studied closely in the classroom."—Bobby Reed, DownBeat magazine (2018).